Attorneys gather in Milwaukee for Diversity Counsel Program

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Nearly four dozen attorneys gathered in Milwaukee Monday for a Diversity Counsel Program offered by the State Bar of Wisconsin.

The event was organized by the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Diversity and Inclusion Oversight Committe and was emceed by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Kori Ashley.

During the keynote speech, Harvard University’s chief diversity and inclusion officer Sherri Charleston discussed promoting diversity in the legal profession through recent constitutional developments.

Following Charleson’s speech, Rock County Circuit Court Judge Ashley Morse moderated a panel discussion on closing the diversity leadership gap.

Governor Tony Evers appointed Morse back in 2022. She is the first woman of color to serve as a judge in Rock County, according to the State Bar of Wisconsin.

When Morse arrived in her chambers for the first time, she said, she looked down the hallway at the photos of the judges who’d come before her.

“It’s a row of white men that goes from one end to the other,” Morse said.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, lawmakers in Madison and throughout the country have been cutting funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. A Holocaust survivor calls attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion reminiscent of 1930’s Nazi Germany.

The Diversity Counsel Program is funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Law Foundation. Sponsors for the program included Wisconsin Association of African American Lawyers, Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, Von Briesen & Roper, The Marcus Corporation, and MWH Law Group.

Click here to read full the article from the State Bar of Wisconsin.